Although most of our planet is covered in water, we are only able to drink and use 1% of it. As the various industries and the United States' population continue to grow, more pressure is put on being able to conserve that 1% of water. By 2025, it is predicted that an average of 2 billion people will find themselves living in severe water scarcity conditions. The United States has been fortunate that its fresh water sources can be easily accessed. However, instead of taking advantage of this fact, people have chosen to be extremely wasteful. By dumping chemicals, untreated sewage, and other wastes into our lakes, streams, and rivers, they have spoiled these water sources. While our clean fresh water supply is shrinking, the treatment of more supplies will be costly. In order to keep these costs to a minimum, we all must conserve this precious resource. Not only are spoiled freshwater sources the issue, several states in the U.S., with California serving as a prime example, are suffering from drought. If these states with drought conditions were able to conserve their water, they could use water saving to complete other necessities that water fulfills, including, but not limited to: cleaning, cooking, irrigating, and electricity. All in all, water is a limited resource necessary to sustain life, and the wise option would be to conserve it.
The term water recycling is generally used synonymously with water reclamation and water reuse. Recycled water can satisfy most water demands, as long as it is adequately treated to ensure water quality appropriate for the use. Gray or dirty water is generally defined as water that contains solid residue, bacteria and chemicals which is allowed to empty down the drain pipes of wash basins, tubs, and showers after being used for washing or rinsing, and that is ordinarily discarded and allowed to flow from the drain pipe into a sewer line. Gray water, can be reusable. Clean but non-potable water is defined as residue and bacteria free and chemically pH (power of hydrogen) neutral. In general people believe in water conservation and limit their water use by either employing gray water systems within their homes or using other means such as buckets to collect wasted water and reuse in irrigation purposes. However, such endeavors require a change in daily habits of people, are cumbersome, expensive and have many moving parts such as pumps used in gray water recycling system. This invention addresses these issues and provides a simple automated water recycling and conservation solution that does not require a change in daily habits.
Currently both clean and gray water from the sink or bathrooms or other drains in households is directly sent to city drainage/recycle recovery water lines as this water is considered dirty or gray. Sometimes gray water technology is used where gray water is directed to a storage tank after filtration and ultraviolet light is used to disinfect the water. This water is then used for agriculture and irrigation purposes. Recycling of gray water for irrigation must comply with city, state and federal regulations. In traditional gray water recycling, water from the shower, bathtub and laundry are filtered to remove debris particles and disinfected using ultra violet light and ionization so that the water can be re-used for landscape irrigation. However, current gray water systems have many drawbacks including being expensive to install, containing moving parts, and diminishing sewage flow as all gray water is locally stored. Current gray water systems require constant maintenance and, if not filtered and cleaned properly, can cause disease or contamination. Further, by law one cannot store gray water for more than 24 hours as gray water may contain fats, oils, grease, hair, lint, soaps, cleansers, fabric softeners, and other harmful chemicals. This can present a problem over a period of time when gray water is used for irrigation. Also, cleaning agents present in gray water contain sodium salts which can create an alkaline condition and damage the soil structure. Thus, a main issue with gray water recycling is that it does not distinguish between clean water and dirty water, for e.g., during showers.
For example, in every household approximately 40% of the time clean water is wasted as gray water even though there is no contamination of gray matter. For example, in a home connected to a current gray water system, clean water flowing through, for example a bathroom sink, will be collected in the same storage tank that contains soapy water. In another example, during teeth brushing, clean water kept running without any use is directed to the city drain as gray water. Another example is during a shower, where up to 5 gallons of clean water is wasted simply by waiting for water to turn hot. Thus, there is a need for a method or system to separate contaminated (e.g. soapy water) from clean water during such uses as described above. It has been shown in various reports that people will perform conservation for longer periods if a change is habits is not required. Thus there is a need for automated, water conservation and recycling system that does not require a change in habits such as stopping water flow during teeth cleaning.
In order to address above issues, Gutierrez-Wolf et al., (U.S. Pat. No. 8,521,335) employ a series of chemical and temperature sensors to determines the acceptability of gray water for irrigation purposes. Based on a preset threshold of acceptability of chlorine chemical concentration (200 parts per million) and temperature level, water is directed to either public sewage system or irrigation pipe using a three-way diverting valve. However, this invention has a narrow definition of clean water as it is based on a singular parameter such high or low concentration of chlorine or high or low temperature level. This approach does not address the critical interdependent relationship between the chemical concentration (of chlorine) and temperature that can provide false threshold causing incorrect opening of a three-way valve and mixing of dirty and clean water. Thus, this lack of relationship can introduce dirty gray water into the irrigation pipe defeating the purpose. Further, this approach does not address bacteria and residue contamination of water that will be directed into the irrigation pipe. Thus, there is a need for an integrated and complete water recycling system that makes sure water is not only chemically clean and pH neutral but also free from bacteria and residue before being directed for recycling purposes such as irrigation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,536 to Houghton, entitled “System of Conserving Water in a Building” and issued May 15, 1990, is a manually operated system to conserve cold water that is normally wasted while a user is waiting for hot water to come out. This water is stored for use by a toilet. This is technically not a “gray” water conservation system, as the water reused never passed through a drain.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,436 to Kaump, entitled “Grate and Water Recovery System” and issued Sep. 14, 1982, details a self-cleaning grate and a storage tank that automatically fills either with gray water or with fresh water, if gray water is not available. Water is pumped on demand from the tank for use by a toilet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,861 to Ford, entitled “Gray Water Recycling System” and issued Jan. 4, 1994, provides a gray water recycling system that can conveniently direct gray water from a fixture such as a wash basin, sink, tub, or shower to a holding tank or the like by replacing the fixture's existing drain pipe with a drain pipe valve assembly that is operable between a drain condition, in which water from the fixture is allowed to flow down the drain pipe into the sewer line, and a recycle condition, in which the water is blocked from flowing into the sewer line and instead is allowed to flow into a holding tank line and ultimately to the holding tank.
Thus, none of current water recycling methods and apparatus are capable of providing a residue free, bacteria free, pH neutral and chemically neutral water for recycling purposes. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved system and method for recycling water.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved system and method for detecting water quality and separating and recycling water.